It might have started out as a strategy, but the ICTU leadership’s profound belief that they can wrest some concessions out of Cowen and Lenihan would be better described as an illusion or perhaps a death wish. We’ve pointed out many times that in a slump social partnership is like the partnership between a cat and a mouse. But at least in Tom and Jerry the mouse was a master of tactics.
It is never a good strategy to announce to the world as David Begg did this morning that the unions were “open to any compromise on pay cuts proposed by the government”. The coalition is in a tight spot they have no majority at all to speak of and are basing their position on trying to hold the line for the bourgeois. Any worker would know that you don’t go in to see the boss to negotiate with a big sign on your forehead saying “we’ll take anything… anything at all”. This is a recipe for defeat and demoralisation.
The position of the trade union leaders in society means that they can exert a big influence over the membership. ICTU should have demanded no wage cuts and no job losses. The crisis isn’t of our making its been caused by the bosses and their rotten capitalist system. The only justification for further talks at this stage surely is to provide a platform to galvanise the movement to prepare for decisive industrial action aimed at stopping the coalition in its tracks. A sliotar down the throat of Lenihan’s anti working class strategy.
Workers will struggle to defend themselves. They have no choice. But they are much more likely to fight if they think they are going to win. They are also far more likely to win if they are given a clear lead. Jack O’Connor and others have been critical of the reliance on social partnership and this is reflected in Begg’s statement this morning, when he said he wasn't expecting much from the talks. But surely the emphasis has to be on preparing the members to be ready to struggle. The essence of the position of the right wing is always to be reasonable and willing to compromise. But this is a fundamentally incorrect position. It lets down the members, invites aggression on behalf of the bosses and sows confusion and apathy among the members.
You can’t turn the workers on and off like you would do a tap. Lenihan and Cowen, Harney and also Gormley and the Greens are fighting a one sided class war against the Irish working class. They are carrying out the wishes of their paymasters the bankers and the big capitalists. The task of the Irish trade union leaders has to be to represent their members and fight for their jobs and wages. You can’t do this by waving a white flag on the way into the negotiations.
The task of the Irish Marxists has to be to provide a clear explanation of the political and economic crisis, but also to fight for a clear socialist programme in the unions and among the youth. Central to that programme is the campaign for a one day general strike. That would provide a focus for a campaign against the cuts and job losses. The November day of action must be the first step in that campaign. One thing’s for sure we won’t get anywhere relying on flogging a dead horse.